HEALTHY – AGING
‘Die young as late as possible’
When I first heard this quote from Ashley Montagu, a British-American humanist and anthropologist, who taught at Harvard and Princeton Universities, I was puzzled. What does it mean ‘Die young?’ Who wants to die young? But after a short while I got it. ‘…as late as possible.’ He meant, that we should live as long as possible, but when we die, we are still young – being full of life, passionate, and do the things we love. Isn’t that what we all hope for?
I want to begin by looking to the sad reality of our lives today. If we are honest with each other, we must acknowledge that we live in a ‘sick’ world. We smoke, we drink too much alcohol, eat unhealthy food, breathe polluted air, don’t exercise enough, spend too much time sitting, and we are working or playing the whole day on any kind of electronic device. This list goes on and on. It is a vicious cycle which makes us sick, pushes far too many people into depressions, and in the end far too often even kill us.
All over the world, medical treatments are improving at an amazing speed, new medications and vaccines are constantly being developed, new hospitals and medical centers are built everywhere, but still people are getting sicker and sicker. How is that possible?
I believe that most people have gotten too used to not taking their lives into their own hands and be self-responsible, but live in many ways irresponsible lifestyles – and if something is wrong they immediately run to hospitals and clinics for help. So people continue to live their unhealthy lifestyles and hope that doctors will continue to fix the negative consequences of that unwise choice.
Regardless of lifestyles, people have the dream to live forever, or at least longer. Scientists for centuries try to find out how we can live longer. In the field of medicine, researchers began to work on many different ways to slow down the aging process, and in the eighties of the last century they started to call this ‘Anti-Aging’. To defend their cause, they developed ethical arguments for these preventive medical treatments:
- Benefits: Treatments to maintain health and prevent disease and death.
- Improved quality of life: A more active, healthier, and fuller life.
- Efficiency: Slowing down aging processes could reduce the rates for all of the most common causes of death in developed societies.
- Autonomy: Freedom to purchase anti-aging medicines that may or may not work, so long as they are not harmful.
Soon many organizations from other fields joined the movement. Compounding pharmacies and cosmetic companies produced supplements, creams and other products, the agricultural industry started to produce more and more organic products, the meat industry spent billions to develop artificial meat, in the sports sector Yoga and Pilates became very popular, Buddhism and mindfulness are practiced everywhere.
Thanyapura’s Sport & Health Resorts and Hotels are exactly focusing on these topics – on motivating our guests to experience and practice healthy lifestyles…